advice on a PMR scramble

I wanted to know if anyone knew how competitive PMR is this year compared to last year. I have only had a few PMR interviews, and liked only one program. I'm deciding on not ranking the other programs and go for the scramble instead. Does anyone know if this year is much more competitive than last year, and that scramble spots would be far more difficult to come by than before? This would drastically affect my decision on whether or not to rank these programs. I have heard mixed stories such as the number of applicants has doubled this year, and some people saying that the number of applicants is about the same as last year. If it's similar to last year, it's likely that I'd be able to scramble into a pretty good program. I'd appreciate any advice.

Thats a very good question. I am in a similar situation. I only interviewed at a few programs. A program told me that PM&R applications are up around 15% from last year. There were around 55 unfilled positons last year with about 242 spots offered, but I'm not sure what the total number of applicants was. Hopefully someone could tell us more.

Thanks Patton for your input on the 15% increase. I recently talked to a PMR program director about this, and was told that there wasn't really any significant change in number of applicants this year, and that there should still be quite a few "good" programs available for scramble. If anyone else has any input, I'd much appreciate it.

I was also wondering if people had heard from PMR attendings or residents that it doesn't really matter too much where you go for residency...the training is much dependent on your individual effort to learn. All programs should have the teaching available to learn everything you need, or seek for. I also heard that doing a fellowship shouldn't be necessary if you have had good training during your residency (this includes interventional pain, EMG, sports, etc). This doesn't surprise me since well trained residents from Med College of Virginia have told me that they don't go for fellowships because they don't need to....they can already go out there and start working because of their proficient training. This leads me to think that programs that have a high percentage of residents that go into fellowships are programs that haven't really trained their residents enough for them to be confident without further training in a fellowship program. An example is Temple Univ...9 of 10 residents last year went into fellowship. Does this mean that Temple hasn't trained their residents well? Any input would be helpful.

I'm still trying to figure out if you're applying to Rad Onc or PM&R??

Anyway, for those that aren't trolls and are seriously interested...

Granted, there were a considerable number of positions left over after the match last year, the majority of quality residencies filled. And the competitive/semi-competitive/non-competitive programs that didn't match, might not have for a variety of reasons. I knew that when I interviewed at BU last year, they had already promised a spot outside of the match. So even if a program decides to match people, they may purposefully leave open spots to fill with their own people who don't go through the match. Shady, but true.

That being said, to take your chances on scramblng is sort of playing Russian Roulete(sp?). No one would have thought that Kessler would have spots available after the match, but a few months ago, they added another spot, making it easier for someone to slip into that quality program. Doesn't happen very often I bet. Programs like U. Wash., Kessler, RIC will always fill...and the ones that don't, you have to give serious thought as to why they didn't.

If it would pain you so much to go to the programs you interviewed at, I would just do a prelim and apply for a entering PGY2 spot next year. I think your chances of sliding in a good program increase dramatically, and you end up going to a program that you've had a chance to think about and not make any hasty decision making. The scramble is just that...a scramble.

My intentions are to go into PMR...a late career change, which is why I haven't been able to arrange for many interviews, and am now thinking of the options for scramble. And I no doubt am interested in the field I intend to pursue.

Before you prejudge me and call me a troll, just ask me my intentions, and I'd be glad to explain. There's nothing wrong with deciding what you want to do late in the game.

Well, it was just a bit difficult to understand initially that's all. And it's not like Rad Onc and PM&R are similar in any way.
Just reminded me of a med forum back in the day where this one guy would post on every forum specialty saying that he was going into that field and he had questions. Frankly, I think he just liked the attention.
That being said, didn't mean for you to take troll personally. If you have any particular questions, I'd be more than happy to help.

I was wondering which programs you interviewed with. You mentioned MCV, I've heard good things about that program. I had to cancel my interview due to weather conditions and was unable to reschedule. I also interviewed at St Vincents in NYC, Sinai in Baltimore, UPenn, and Carolinas Med center. I actually liked all 4 and am having trouble ranking them. Any other PM&R applicants out there please share experiences as well.

10+ Year Member

I am also having trouble ranking places. I felt that many of the programs that I interviewed at were strong and prepared their residents well. I don't know whether to rank programs according to reputation, location or "feel"? I feel like I would be happy at many of the programs I interviewed at! I am sure a lot of you are experiencing this as well.

Does anyone know which programs are considered to be the best and most respected in the field? I don't mean "top rehab hospitals", like the ones listed by USnews, rather, the top programs. I interviewed at a few programs that are not on the USnews list that I really liked and compared them to the USnews hospitals and found no difference in curriculum. I think that all the programs must follow guidlines and most of the programs I visited met all the requirements. This makes it difficult for me to decide because I know that I would get quality training anywhere I go. So I guess now I want to know which programs have the "best" reputation among practicing Physiatrists. Maybe by knowing this I can finally make up my mind. I wonder if I am the only one completely confused!!!

10+ Year Member

I liked Baylor/UT Houston, Univ of Colorado, University of Pittsburg, UT Southwestern. I also liked Johns Hopkins, but I dont know if I am just biased towards that program because of the "Johns Hopkins" name. Its a new program, but I feel that it has a lot of potential because of the support of the Johns Hopkins system. The residents seem very happy and they were honest with the weaknesses of the program which the faculty acknowledge and are working on. I have no doubt that its going to be a great program, but I dont really want to take that risk of being one of the first graduates.

Baylor/UT is excellent all around!!!! Since it is a large program and well established you can't go wrong. I am leaning more towrds this program right now. I also think that the University of Colorado is just as good as Baylor/UT. The program is small and it seems that the residents all get a long and are extremely happy there. Also, I would much rather live in Denver than in Houston.

What do you guys think of UT Southwestern, SUNY Syracuse, University of Pittsburg, Metrohealth and University of MN??? These programs seemed good to me, but I know that they did not fill last year? Why are people not choosing these programs?

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